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View Full Version : how it is around here.....



greenoak
12-21-2008, 08:08 AM
like everyone i have no idea whats going to happen....but its getting pretty bad in our area....just casually i have heard of several pretty major layoffs....and lots of stock market talk in the store about losses in relation to retirement...and lots of worry from the customers, and less traffic this month for sure....it feels bad ,..we have stayed even or up in retail this year...but im sure not expecting any miriacles this coming year....
mainly trying not to overreact,but i want to be careful and tighten up....and hopefully not lay off anyone..ps...this is the last weekend before christmas and we are in an ice storm with wind and -20 windchill...
we are so local and need to be so regional or worldly...

KristineS
12-21-2008, 02:39 PM
I think a lot of areas are feeling the pinch. I know my area of the country is losing some jobs and, of course, being in Michigan, my state has been hit hard.

I don't know that 2009 will be a banner year for anyone.

cbscreative
12-21-2008, 05:40 PM
It will be a banner year for someone, but as of right now, I'm still trying to figure out who. However, I think it is more under the control of the individual business than a particular type of business. There are some businesses that will be more susceptible to consumers freaking out than others, but as a general rule, the success or failure for anyone are both optional. Small businesses have an advantage that they can be more agile and adapt to changes. Since we are all small, I think that is a good thing to remember.

greenoak
12-22-2008, 07:38 AM
thats sure what im trying to do. and still have to go with the fact that there is bad financial pressure all around our store..many in our current base have less to spend...
...the theme im going for is save money with style, playing up to the truthy idea that our furniture is reasonable and lots better than most new......as in real wood versus particle board etc...
we have always survived, but dang!!!
ann

cbscreative
12-22-2008, 12:26 PM
That's an excellent selling point, Ann. The older stuff keeps on going. You buy the new junk they sell and it is landfill material in a very short period of time. This is especially true of furniture.

In one sense, a bad economy is good because it forces people to evaluate their priorities. In a good economy, the disposable junk sells. When things are tight, maybe more people will seek value over price. If it works out that way, better quality may once again be demanded. I would welcome that because I prefer quality and it's getting increasingly harder to find.

Aaron Hats
12-22-2008, 09:56 PM
Ann, We're in a similar situation as we both sell unique things to a niche market.

Our internet business is a very big part of our business. We could not survive with just a storefront. So when our internet business was declining each month for the first eight months this year I thought we were doomed. Luckily, I found the problem and got to work fixing it and recovered fairly quickly. At the time I was going through it though, I kept asking myself why it was happening. Now, I think it was happening to prepare us for 2009. We're still recovering financially but are in a much better position now than we were six to nine months ago and in a much better position to handle whatever the coming year throws at us.

Aaron

Evan
12-22-2008, 10:38 PM
Rhode Island is right behind Michigan for job loss, so we're right up there with you, Kristine. Generally Rhode Island feels everything before the United States, and I see unemployment continuing to rise well above 10%.

It has definitely been felt by everybody in this area. There were many local restaurants and shops that I frequented that closed down as a result of this economic mess. These were family owned businesses who have been around forever. They certainly will be missed, and all I can hope for is that things do not get much worse.

greenoak
12-23-2008, 09:25 AM
right evan...its so widespread..our resturants are really hurting here too......even people with plenty of money and safe jobs seem to be cutting back...
good for you aaron....its bad enough working on solving your own problems and worse to have to deal with stuff so dramatically affecting you but that you werent really in control of ....
im trying to go for more internet exposure, a sales page actuallly.......but my unique/ good stuff is so big,as in 4 ft wide and 7 ft tall, its not like shipping a hat or an ebook....and im sure my little stuff isnt that special....anyone could buy it from ebay to the big boxes or online from specialists... its hard to work on something when it doesnt seem very likely to work...but i hate to have all my eggs in one basket like we have now...and going internet seems logical..... ...
we really have to make our store work, it has to be first ...thats where almost all our income comes from....did i mention our second home on the lake!!! and all of my families health insurance and house payments.....nothing like a bunch of pressure...

cbscreative
12-24-2008, 02:41 PM
I hear you, Evan, on business closings. Many long standing, local busineses here (Grand Rapids, MI) have closed too. What's worse is it wasn't all because they were slow or seriously struggling. The banking mess was the real cause. Many of them had their lines of credit pulled, and it had nothing to do with their credit. Without that buffer to get them through normal business cycles, they just closed their doors.

pete
12-26-2008, 09:58 AM
My business is online, so local / regional conditions have little influence on it. But, being part of the community and having friends and neighbors who are dependent on the local economy, I will say we are in better shape then most areas of the coutnry.

There is a local plant that makes automotive fuel injectors that is owned by Continental Tire. They were going to close either the local plant or one in South Carolina. The local plant stays and will have somewhere around 350 new jobs as they close down in SC.

The Newport News Shipyard just recently announced a giant deal with a French nuclear power plant construction company to add their US headquarters to the shipyard's property and partner on what seems to be a resurgence in interest in nuclear power plants.

Canon has several local plants that are expanding / adding product lines.

So, while all of these involve foreign investment, it's good to have them.

One question mark at this time is the local Budweiser brewery / Busch Gardens / Water Country operations, since the takeover of Bud by InBev. Jury still out on that.

And port activity is down, with thousands of independent truckers and others dependent on those containers coming in, it's a bad time for them.

Had a Ford plant close down completely. That had to hurt family income, even if they find new jobs, few will be at the same wages. And home prices are still spiraling, but as I go for my walks I notice turnover seems to be picking up some, with them not being for sale as long as a few months ago.

I guess we've got it lucky, compared to many regions. Plus, we were spared any hurricanes or major nor'easters, so the weather has been good, as well. There have been some real disasters elsewhere this year, so it seems Hampton Roads VA is a good place to be this year.

Evan
12-30-2008, 12:55 AM
We were spared any hurricanes or major nor'easters.

New England (and the east coast) is due for a serious storm soon. It's brewing.

And I see this being a snowy winter, just very weird weather conditions this season to date. Let's just pray for the best!

huggytree
01-01-2009, 04:06 PM
ohhhhhh....everyone is looking at things with the attitude 'the cup is 1/2 empty!"

im looking at it as 'i cant wait until my competition goes under!'....it will happen & things will improve for the survivors...you and me!

smartest thing you can do right now is to diversify...i have added alot of small 'service' type things where i used to refer them to someone else...yea i dont make much at them...but it keeps me busy and better to make $500 a day than $0 on a slow day...plus im expanding my customer base and will get more jobs and referrals in the years to come...making me stronger as the economy gets weaker...hopefully keeping me atleast even.

some idea's i had to diversify failed- solar water heating ($12,000+ to save $10 a month) gee i wonder why that failed.....but i have a friend who does 20% of his business on renuable energy plumbing....he is on the 'focus on energy list' which i was unable to get on because i couldnt sell my system....i failed not because the customers are there somewhere...i failed because i could find 2 of them so i could get on the list.....

my supplier reps are being fired, my supply house reps are being fired....im seeing every company i deal with shrink....ive heard now that 12 man plumbing shops are down to 3

the local union has now come up with reduced health care plan for 30 hour work weeks.

Instead of having 1 or 2 large customers and having it easy i think its better to have 100 small customers....

gear your business to higher end clients....in my area they are still spending money...atleast ON ME!

My biggest question is how come everything has gone up in price when gasoline went up to $4, but now that its down to $1.65 nothing has come back down?( i never took the $2 per hour increase back either)......I still think my food prices are going up $5 per week.....thats money someone else is making that isnt going to be spent on our service/product...

I have a flower shop owner friend who has their business cut in 1/2 right now...many restaurants dont seem very busy anymore either, but i was at one the other day with a line, so theirs always a way to prosper...you just need to adapt and not do things the same....

THE GLASS is 1/2 FULL!!!

cbscreative
01-01-2009, 08:57 PM
Huggy, I'm glad to see you thinking like an entreprenuer. You have grown a lot since you joined the old SBF. I remember your early posts, and it's almost like the huggytree here is an imposter for the one we knew there. So who are you and what did you do with the real huggytree?

All kidding aside, that is exactly the kind of thinking you needed. The only objection I have is you used the word "everyone" and I am not a half-empty person. Now I'm hurt.

greenoak
01-01-2009, 10:36 PM
that sounds great huggy...and you have something people really need..... i really feel like that too, or try to.......but i m going to be darn careful this year...and hope i get the right ideas going...
.we just did our year end ### and we actually did pretty great..
ann

huggytree
01-02-2009, 08:44 AM
Green oak....I glad to hear your antique business is doing well...We collect furniture and glass from the 1900 range....i know prices are way down..

your customer is someone with extra money who wants something special in their house. i would think it would be a horrible time for you...but maybe your like that 1 restaurant with the lines outside, while every other one is 1/4 full.....

antiques i thought have been bad for years now...your doing well, so you must be doing something special..


after all my positive talk i just looked at my schedule for Jan. and its blank....im going from working 10 hour days around christmas to sitting here today the day after new years making calls looking for work. today i will work 2 hours...Jan/Feb will be break even at best...it was last year too....

greenoak
01-02-2009, 08:51 PM
thanks huggy....luckily we branched out and expanded into more of a lifestyle store, with broader appeal , before antiques went down.... i still love them tho....and really they are still selling for us, a good antique piece of furniture is probably better and cheaper than most new stuff..
hardly any smalls sell now ... we used to do so great with them...the furniture is good tho...
ann

FormerlyToolman
01-03-2009, 09:03 AM
The business that I am in now generally slows down starting in November, with Christmas coming, and continues slow until April. Due to my location, we see an increase in summer traffic.

That being said, December's gross sales are up about 34% over last year! It really did not slow down at the end of summer as usual either.

I think that there are positives everywhere. In tough times, people will gravitate to where they get the best value. The best value is many times, not the lowest price.

Paul Elliott
01-13-2009, 05:13 PM
thanks huggy....luckily we branched out and expanded into more of a lifestyle store, with broader appeal , before antiques went down.... i still love them tho....and really they are still selling for us, a good antique piece of furniture is probably better and cheaper than most new stuff..
hardly any smalls sell now ... we used to do so great with them...the furniture is good tho...
ann

For your online business, Ann, what sort of things sell that are easily or inexpensively shipped? Perhaps some of them are readily available from eBay, etc., but if you get and maintain an excellent online relationship with your customers, they will buy from you.

HT is right--someone will survive. Just be sure it's you! Jump through whatever hoops you need to to survive. As a small business person, you have the wiggle room to do that.

Paul

Paul Elliott
01-13-2009, 05:18 PM
So when our internet business was declining each month for the first eight months this year I thought we were doomed. Luckily, I found the problem and got to work fixing it and recovered fairly quickly. At the time I was going through it though, I kept asking myself why it was happening.

Aaron, do you mind sharing with us the cause of your downturn? If you'd rather not bare your soul to the world, you can PM me.

Thanks.

Paul

Business Attorney
01-13-2009, 05:37 PM
I'd be interested in hearing what it was that you turned around, too, Aaron.

Aaron Hats
01-13-2009, 07:59 PM
No, I don't mind giving some of the details. Two years ago I paid our then webmaster for a bunch of SEO work which they did. Then in Aug/Sept '07 I paid that same webmaster to upgrade/change our sites shopping cart to Volusion which they did. Unfortunately, when they did that they undid all the SEO work previously done with the exception of a couple articles. If you look at our site you'll see how many pages there are. Well, only about four pages had page rank with all the rest not even known to the search engines. There was no site map. There was no feed to Google Base. The text links at the bottom of the home page pointed to url's that the search engines couldn't follow. Product descriptions were in a field the search engines didn't read. The list goes on.

The decline in business was gradual and occurred over several months. I first thought it was some of our choices in product selection. Then I thought maybe our pricing was off. I searched all over the web for negatives reports on us. Finally, in Aug/Sept '08 I discovered all of the above.

With the help of this forum, the Volusion user forum, Google Webmaster Tools and other resources I started fixing everything I just mentioned and more. Almost immediately, I started seeing business pick up and ended the year erasing almost all of the losses we had during the first nine months of the year.

Lessons learned...shame on me for taking so long to find the problem and being so hands off when it came to the web site. Luckily, I did learn the lesson and am now in complete control of the site. I still need occasional help but I know a lot more about web sites, SEO and e-commerce than I did six months ago.

Aaron

Paul Elliott
01-13-2009, 08:23 PM
Great story, Aaron! Thanks. That makes an excellent case study.

I would urge you to consider writing it up as such. If you decide to do so, I'd like to publish it on my blog with your links, of course.

Paul

cbscreative
01-14-2009, 10:46 AM
Aaron, to me the strangest part of that story is if the webmaster did the SEO, they should have known better on the shopping cart changes. I'm glad you were able to correct the problem, but it shouldn't have had to be your responsibility.

I've also seen cases where retail companies spend big bucks on custom database apps which kill any hope of SEO. It's definitely a "buyer beware" issue on many things like this. I don't think most of these programming companies have bad intentions, but their lack of knowledge on search engines is a train wreck waiting to happen.

huggytree
02-03-2009, 08:37 PM
had my first builder today unable to pay me right now. He just sold some stocks this week so he can pay his bills (and me he says).

owes me $1,700....he was paid by the homeowner 1 month ago, so basically he has stolen from me. It is something you can go to jail for, but no one prosecutes.

almost all my customers are paying late now. Im going to lose one of these times. I keep coming close. It sucks for someone else to drag your business down when overall your doing great. I still keep learning lessons and improving my ideas

Paul Elliott
02-03-2009, 08:53 PM
had my first builder today unable to pay me right now. He just sold some stocks this week so he can pay his bills (and me he says).

owes me $1,700....he was paid by the homeowner 1 month ago, so basically he has stolen from me. It is something you can go to jail for, but no one prosecutes.

Go to his office on Friday morning and ask for his check. When you get it, take it immediately to his bank and cash it, or exchange it for a cashier's check.

Go back every morning and press him until he gives it to you. Become the squeaky wheel, otherwise you will become his banker with a worthless debt.


almost all my customers are paying late now. Im going to lose one of these times. I keep coming close. It sucks for someone else to drag your business down when overall your doing great. I still keep learning lessons and improving my ideas

Welcome to the human race! We've all learned that way.

Paul

huggytree
02-04-2009, 07:06 AM
my latest slow payer is someone who has a record of payment for a year..sometimes he even has paid early.

he will pay, so im not worried about this one...he lives in a very nice house and has backup money...it took 3 phone calls to get him to admitt there is a problem..99% sure he will pay...after him i have only 1 more slow payer and he just paid for most of what he owe's....right now i have $3k that i could potentially lose...all the rest is good.....

work is so slow right now(typical) that there are no large projects....im just happy that these guys dont owe me $10k or more each...

thx4yrtym
02-04-2009, 09:45 AM
Huggytree,

The only type of jobs in construction right now at least in the Midwest are remodeling jobs. Permits for remodeling are way up and new construction are almost non-existent. We provide permit details to subscribers in Northern Indiana, gathered from 40 locations, so I'm not guessing about it, I see it in the numbers. This is quite a shift from the norm. Sign of the times, folks keeping and fixing up what they have rather than deal with the mortgage mess.

If you have the time, the permit data in your area might help.

Regards,

Gregg

huggytree
02-04-2009, 10:04 AM
after tomarrow im out of work!

nothing new to do.....in box is empty

i have a few 4-8 hour projects to finish up in the next 2 months

last feb. i worked 45 hours....this year may be the same.

i just bid on a new house last night..very large...115 hours worth of work.

i have $90k worth of possibilities out there (bids waiting for ok), but have already lost $50k worth that i bid on last month....eveyone goes with someone cheaper or says not right now....once again very typical for Feb.....exact same thing happened last year.

i have so many more connections and contractors than i did last year...i know once march and april come i will be back at it.....last year i lost 1/2 my customers over price...i can see customers being lost again this year as they try anything to get work.

i love working on new homes...but there was never any real money there when times were good..now the bids are just stupid....i charge my same price when times are good or bad...and so i lose bids....i only did 4 houses last year....i should be doing 1-2 a month...lots of money in remodeling...i still make a killing everytime....

im taking a small vacation next week & doing some home improvement projects...im spending money...